Badge in Azure

Chapter 274: Murder Plan (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Only magic chords were the most reliable thing to use. No one had any idea who said that first, but they must have been a traditional mage. Saleen’s thinking had been heavily influenced by Jason and because of that when he was training he did not care how much money he spent on his magic chords.

Saleen was only concerned with how he could continue training. The new magic patterns that he had just grasped were shabby. Not only could they not be used for attacking, but they also used up a lot of energy.

Saleen could not continue with them while he still had more pressing issues to deal with. If the lightning dragon were to return, it would be incredibly angry. He had to deal with that problem first before he considered other things.

It was already October and the wind on the white beach was incredibly cold. The mages that were working all released the solidifying magic on their magic robes to resist the cold. The swordsmen only had their sword aura, but it was not snowing and they were better at resisting the cold than the mages.

During this season, the plants in the region would shed their leaves and present a yellow color. When Saleen and Nailisi came down from the Pan’s Turtle alchemical boat they saw the mages still slogging away. The forest had already been cleared to make way for roads and an empty space cleared for more craftsmen to arrive to start building the city.

The leaves that they cleared had been piling up for tens of thousands of years leaving tons of compost material underneath. Some of the pirates that were once farmers touched the deep black soil and started crying.

Many of them had been forced to be pirates and the fertile land there had reminded them of their past lives. The Qin Empire had high regards for agriculture, and even mages had a good opinion of it.

As these busy people saw the fertile land, they felt a simple satisfaction in their hearts. This place had been barren for thousands of years with no one coming to stay, but now it was such a beautiful piece of land.

Daniel was the only one who did not feel that way. He was born in Tanggulasi and was a wealthy man. The land there was infertile and they had become rich through business similar to a Sikeqinya person. He had commanded the huge death creatures to reclaim the land and had deforested the place. A feeling of humiliation rose from his heart.

Only the people from the Qin Empire would be so bold as to ask a wealthy mage to do such a thing. While Daniel was resting he chewed on the jerky that the mages from Sregl Island had given to him, thinking to himself how terrible his life was. He thought to himself, “What is the use cultivating so many crops on a piece of land? It is still less than ten percent of the revenue I get from doing business.”

When Saleen appeared in front of Daniel, he could not help but immediately start complaining.

“Saleen, can I do something else?”

“Something else?” Saleen looked at Daniel in shock. The sincere looking death mage was filled with sorrow now, looking even more unhappy than when he had forced him to be his follower.

“Something that a mage would do. Look; my summoned creature has become an animal that is used to till the land and they have been eating tasteless food. I’m a death mage. Besides researching spirits, fighting is my profession.”

“Oh, so that’s the case…” Saleen looked at Daniel thoughtfully. As he had gotten older and spent the past few years with Lex, he had gained an aura of nobility to him. He was no longer the same out of spirit youth; now, his thoughts were hard to read by others. He understood Daniel’s grievances. After all, Daniel was from Tanggulasi.

“Yes!” Seeing Saleen with an understanding and compassionate expression, Daniel was relieved. He did not want to do farmwork any more.

Saleen sighed in his heart. Was he not the same as Daniel? Were mages really more noble than other professions? Without the farmers tilling the land, the mages would go hungry.

If one did not work, what right did he have to eat? Daniel reminded Saleen of himself when he had first arrived in Bitter Water Prefecture. He had not been able to understand why the mages wanted to do so much for Lex.

He understood now that mages were the same as others, besides their natural gifts.

Daniel was talented, but it was a pity he was a little showy about it. It was different from his appearance. This could be good too. He had brought Daniel under his control as a façade for him in the future.

“I can arrange for you to do something else. Daniel, when do you feel like you will go up another grade?” Saleen asked Daniel about his advancement.

“It is hard to say. I feel as if I’m already at the edge of grade-4, but I can’t seem to advance another step. I might have a breakthrough at any moment.” Daniel was a little cocky. He was like a mage now and he had not thought about his contract with Saleen. He was satisfied with his own abilities.

“Then you should do something else besides training to go experience this world. Since you don’t want to do something like this, go gather the pirates together, you need to accept a few magic disciples.”

Daniel was shocked and he asked, “Accept magic disciples? It’s still too early for me, isn’t it? I don’t have death flames yet. Even if one or two of these pirates are gifted, they cannot become death mages.”

Daniel was not worried about his lineage; his teacher had not warned him not to impart his magic knowledge to other people.

“Once the city is built, I will arrange a laboratory for you. You will need some people to serve you. Choose some for now, then I will gather more pirates in the future and you can choose better ones from there. Take it as training on how to be someone else’s teacher.”

Daniel thought for a while. It was better than staying there, so he agreed.

“As for combat, I need to deal with a lightning dragon now. You are only a grade-3 mage, so you can’t help.”

Saleen’s words left Daniel embarrassed. He knew he was avoiding any work now. He did not yet have the ability to face off against a grade-8 creature.

Daniel hesitated for a while before saying, “Saleen, I definitely cannot go underwater but can I help from land?”

“Sure.” Saleen laughed. He took out the new map that the mages had just drawn. Pointing at it, he said, “I need to set up a huge trap here, but first I need to dredge this area.”

Saleen explained his plan to Daniel. As Daniel listened he could not help but respect Saleen. Saleen’s idea was very simple, but it was precisely because it was simple that it was possible to capture the lightning dragon. He was satisfied with Saleen’s arrangements too, even though it involved working the land. It was part of the battle and not the same job as what the craftsmen had.

“Bring the pirates to do this. Remember; use your death magic to hide your scent so you don’t alert the lightning dragon. I give it at most half a month before it returns. It might appear in as little as three to five days, so you need to work quickly.”

Saleen easily deflected Daniel’s grievances and he even managed to get him to do a more onerous task happily. He started questioning himself. Since when had he become so similar to Lex? Could the bloodline thing be true? His ancestors were wealthy too but it had been over thousands of years. That little amount of bloodline he shared with the wealthy families had to be as diluted as water.

Saleen did not know that as he was growing up that he would naturally be affected by those around him. Lex had not taught him any technique when it came to this, but after spending years together Saleen had unconsciously learned many things from Lex. These things were unrelated to magic and were entirely based on one’s temperament and abilities.

He had many things he needed others for, he could not just deal with the lightning dragon alone. Before Lex returned, he had to set the foundation of the city. There was a lot a thousand people could do and Saleen was not very troubled, it all seemed pretty easy.

As he let Daniel set the traps, Saleen called over all the mages from Sregl Island to research the first building of the city.

Under Jason’s design, the center of the city was a square with a huge teleportation portal. Saleen did not have the ability to change the blueprint but he decided not to build a square. Instead, he wanted to build a building that was similar to the temple of the Myers Goddess.

There was a teleportation portal in the temple of the goddess. It was incredibly stable and was not damaged even after tens of thousands of years. Saleen wanted to build this city to gain a safe passageway for him and Lex to enter the interdimensional space, so he naturally thought of the Goddess’ temple. That building left a lasting impression on him. The temple had also changed his fate. He had met Nailisi there and gained a large amount of wealth.

Large amounts of building materials had been taken out from within the bracelet that Lex had left for Nailisi. More puppets were used to build the city. When Jason designed this city, he had also created many puppets specifically to help with construction. To finish this city with humans alone would take decades.

The price to pay to speed up the process of building the city was that it required a large number of magic nuclei to command these puppets.

Saleen wanted to build a temple that did not make offerings to any god and the plan left the mages incredibly excited. Perhaps in their hearts, such a temple symbolized their faith in magic.

Such an action was of course offending to the Holy See, but who cared? The pirates definitely did not and the mages from Sregl Island had not cared about any gods for the past thousands of years.

The trap in the north still required one last important step. Saleen took out a large puppet from the bracelet that Lex had left him and let the mages assemble it.

The mages that Jason had chosen for Saleen all had special abilities. Some were masters in alchemy, some could concoct magic medicine, but all of them had a similarity. They were all experts when it came to magic arrays. Saleen distributed the work and all that was left was to set up the trap.

The most important part of the trap was the bait. The lightning dragon’s eggs were in Saleen’s hands, but Saleen was not afraid the lightning dragon would not come. North of the city there were some rivers that flowed into the sea. The river that Saleen’s alchemical boat had entered was not very wide, but it was deep. Saleen had thought of the idea of baiting it because the river was not very wide.

Lightning dragons were very powerful, but if it entered a river that was too narrow, it would be the same as a fish entering a net. It would be impossible for it to escape.